Archive for category Childhood Revisited

If Gargoyles was created today, the fandom would be in an uproar over “Double Jeopardy,” since this episode pretty much ships Xanatos and Goliath, and while there’s a whole lot of shipping going on, no one would have expected to ship those two. “Double Jeopardy” feels backtracky, even though it probably wasn’t, with an “oh, by the way, THIS HAPPENED in that one episode” flashback, even though we didn’t see it happen. This hurts Gargoyles a bit more than the writers believe it does. I kinda feel like Annie Wilkes from Misery, wanting to scream out about stuff not happening in the previous episode. (“Do you have AMNESIA!?”) It worked in the “City of Stone” saga, but going to this well over and over just makes the show feel false and fake. Again, because the way we view continuity now differs drastically than how it was viewed in the 90s, these kinds of flashbacks would have been the norm, instead of the contemporary method of dropping subtle hints and building off minor moments into bigger events in the future. (There’s another issue – the show is starting to break against its own mythology and rules, not to mention logic, to make events happen. I’ll get into that later.)

The screenshot above isn’t from these two episodes. I included this to show everyone the core animation studios that Disney employed to create the best looking episodes. Whenever these studios are not involved, strap in, because you’re in for a questionable ride. Gargoyles is a complex visual show, which requires the top talent to make all the subtleties and broad moments work. These two episodes did not have these studios, and while “Double Jeopardy” is passable, “Upgrade” is proof positive that some episodes just NEED your best work.

“Double Jeopardy” makes the claim that, after Goliath fought off Xanatos’ robots way back in the pilot, there was one extra hidden away, which activated and managed to get a scratch on Goliath before receiving its requisite beatdown. Owen comes in and swabs some ointment on the scratch, secretly stealing precious gargoyles cells. Never mind the fact that the show is slightly re-doing past events, but didn’t they establish that the stone slumber is perfectly suited to heal such injuries? Therefore, Goliath should have adamantly refused treatment. I get that Goliath was still on Xanatos and Owen’s side at the time, but there’s definitely better ways to handle this. Goliath was hurt many times during the run thus far. A bit of creative editing and observations could have allowed the writers to pick up Goliath’s DNA practically anywhere. In some ways, setting up this episode was more work than necessary.

But, hey, clone Goliath! That’s kind of worth it. And he comes with Maniacal Laugh (TM) and everything! Gargoyles has a little fun here, and by proxy Keith David, with a more energetic and manipulative evil Goliath, even pointing out the ridiculousness of the Maniacal Laugh in general. The DNA taken from Goliath allowed Xanatos and Dr. Severus to grow a fresh Goliath from scratch, who was taught by Xanatos himself. They let out for a test run, and it looks like it started reeking havoc on things, specifically Elisa, Lex, and Broadway. While they try to figure out if that was really Goliath or not, it looks as if Severus just went ahead and betrayed Xanatos, stealing the clone Goliath from him while it was encased in stone. The show tries to make it seem like it could actually be Goliath, but anyone who seen anything sci-fi ever knows what’s up, and beginning with the Owen cotton-swab swab plays that hand too early.

I’m not sure I buy that Elisa, Lex, and Broadway (and the rest of the gargoyles) would have bought into the very suggestion that Goliath might have been behind the earlier shenanigans. I know the beast looked and sounded like Goliath, but 1) they know damn well Goliath wouldn’t do that, and 2) considering EVERYTHING they’ve been up against, it’s odd the clone idea wasn’t floated by earlier. I mean, they figure out pretty quickly that it wasn’t Goliath, but that they even entertained that notion seems odd. I can’t strike that against the show though, since the episode doesn’t harp on it too much, and glosses over the debate quickly. A stupider cartoon would have spent way too much time over the confusion.

While tracking the mysterious fake Goliath, the real Goliath and Elisa happen to catch Xanatos heading towards an oil rig, where he confronts the betraying Severus. Yet Severus thinks that this was all an elaborate plan by Xanatos himself! (Finally, all that Xanatos-gambit nonsense has been used against him!) While those two try and sort things out, Goliath and Elisa indeed find the Goliath clone, all chained up. He calls himself “Thailog,” which is “Goliath” backwards. Kinda. Because all clones and doubles and doppelgangers name themselves the “backwards name” version of their copy. It’s just what you do.

Here, things get a little… creepy. Goliath sees the clone as an abomination and wants to destroy it, but Elisa convinces him that its not Thailog’s fault he was created, so there’s no point in harming him. So far, so good. Then Elisa starts to mention that since Thailog is made from Goliath’s DNA, essentially, Thailog is Goliath’s son. This… is a stretch. Yet, I’d be okay with this if the show meant this in a thematic way. And it kinda does. But suddenly, Goliath actually begins tofeel that way. And so does Xanatos! This becomes crystal clear after Thailog escapes and captures all four of them – Goliath, Elisa, Severus, and Xanatos – outing himself as the master mind of this entire plan in order to nab 20 million dollars off Xanatos himself. The dialogue starts to skew strangely towards familial talk, particularly between Thailog, Goliath, and Xanatos, and it’s a bit terrifying, in a nonsensical way. It’s one thing to struggle and see a clone as a living, breathing being and not some meaningless copy. It’s a whole ‘nother thing to connect to it as your spawn.

So, yeah, Thailog has the strength and speed as Goliath, with the massive intelligence of Xanatos, which makes him one arrogant son of a bitch, and I immediately like him. Hell, when Severus asks him how he plans to spend the money – you know, being a giant gargoyle an all – Thailog scoffs. He’ll think of something later. (Nice deflection, writers.) Anyway, Thailog plans to blow up the rig, which seems stupidly wasteful, but the group escapes. Goliath and Thailog fight a bit, the rig erupts in flames, Goliath desperately calls for Thailog among the flames, Thailog goes after the money instead, entire rig explodes. Everyone survives except Thailog, and everyone feels bad, because they all believed Thailog was a misunderstood teenager created from Goliath’s and Xanatos’ sperm, and not just science gone crazy. Suuuuuuure.

Fret not, though, because if he really had Xanatos’ brain, then Thailog had a contingency plan, and most certainly would have escaped the flames. Which means Thailog is out there, alive and well. (Therefore, the blowing up of the rig is not stupidly wasteful.) “I have created a monster,” Xanatos says in the end. Is that guilt I hear in his voice? The last few episodes have been interesting in this regard, seeing more and more of Xanatos open up in his own subdued kind of way. Would be great to see more of this in the future.

We won’t get too much into that in “Upgrade,” though. I try not to point out flaws in the animation all that often, unless there are just terrible visuals or something particularly striking that needs to be mentioned. In that regard, “Upgrade” is fine. But “Upgrade” is a fight/battle-heavy episode, with all six gargoyles going up against all the members of the Pack, sans Fox, who are then given basically superpowers. One-on-one fights you can kinda slip by with a mediocre animation studio. This kind of battle royale? Sorely in need of the best. And Koko Entertainment can’t make it work. They try, and I mean they really do try, but it lacks dynamism and coherence. The fights in this episode are almost 60s Batman TV show levels of craftsmanship.

There isn’t that much to talk about in “Upgrade,” really. The Pack gets their asses kicked by the gargoyles. The robot Xanatos – AKA Coyote – offers the Pack a proposition. One month later, all the Pack members are given literal upgrades – Wolf his given genetic modifications to become a wolf-like creature; Jackal and Hyena are made into cyborgs; only Dingo opts for a regular suit of armor. It’s notable that Dingo is disgusted by how easily the rest of the crew accepts to alter their bodies so easily; it’s obvious he’s gonna leave the group after this upcoming beatdown. It’s a moot point, since even though they do manage to overpower Goliath and Hudson, the remaining team – Broadway, Brooklyn, and Lex – think of a plan to overtake them. Essentially the upgrade was for nothing, as they still got their asses kicked. Also, Coyote is destroyed by a pretty badass Goliath headsqueeze.

There’s two important things to draw from this episode. One, Goliath realizes he has to choose his second-in-command after a near-death experience. This gets Lex, Broadway, and Brooklyn into a competition over fighting crime, and it becomes clear that I really miss this dynamic. The show has frequently used these three to explore the complex and new modern world, in different contexts, and their easy-going nature and willingness to learn and adapt made them quite the highlight of the show. Now that Gargoyles is in the throes of the second season, its primary concern is forward progression (I… I think), so there’s really not a lot they can really do with the young brood. Still, having them compete friendly like, yet still able to kick ass when it comes down to it, gives the show a bit of breathing room separate from the brooding and the incessant planning. In the end, Goliath chooses Brooklyn, and everyone agrees. I personally think it should’ve been Broadway – he was kicking some serious tail towards the end of season one. But a Brooklyn is fine, too.

The second thing is the frame story of the episode, a pseudo-chess match between Fox and Xanatos. There’s a bit to unpack here, even though the frame story itself feels so forced, sloppy and distracting more than anything else. So during the episode, the two lovebirds play what looks like a chess game, with the pieces as gargoyles. This is wildly, insanely obtuse – probably the worse case of “subtlety” I’ve seen in a while. Yet, I don’t think the shots of the two playing chess is really about how Fox and Xanatos are manipulating everyone – I mean, we don’t really need an obvious visual cue for that. These cuts are really about Fox and Xanatos themselves, and how their perfunctory relationship is truly growing into something that one might mistakenly call… love? The two match wits over this fake-game, apparently matching wits over what may be their master plan involving the gargoyles and the Pack, using them as real-world game pieces to test each other. Fox technically wins, but Xanatos realizes he found a true soulmate, at least mentally. Once again, we’re seeing Xanatos soften up a bit, opening up with his new lover in a way not quite seen before.

I’m not sure how I want to rate these episodes. I think they were slightly better than the previous ones, but not necessarily ideal. There were elements I liked, somewhat ironically, somewhat genuinely, and there were some moments that were a bit too silly and contrived for my tastes. I did like the small callback during “Upgrade,” when Xanatos says to Fox that he still has an edge. Between his “admission” of love here, his signs of guilt in “Double Jeopardy,” and his reaction to fearing death in “The Price,” it’s a great moment to reflect on what the man used to be back in season one, and who he is now. It’s a small, but notable change, and in that regard, I’ll give it extra points.

This is somewhat unexpected and unprecedented. Not because they’re adaptations of classic, well-known franchises, but because of the specific choices that were made here. In the case of Sony’s games, Ratchet and Clank and Sly Cooper seemed to be on their way out, the last bastion of an era of mascot-based games in a world of gritty, heavy shooters. The last two games were relatively well-reveiwed and probably made a decent amount of money, but it’s difficult to claim they did SO well as to spawn a movie. Yet, every film based on the big-hitter games – Uncharted, Halo, World of Warcraft – have all stalled and/or proven to be problematic. Both games have the potential to be interesting films (Ratchet and Clank moreso than Sly Cooper), but the idea always seemed lofty, the fandom’s unachievable wet dream. And yet, here we are.

Most likely, Sony saw Dreamworks’ heavy push into the animated franchise end of things, with its multiple films and TV shows and agreements with Netflix, and wanted a piece of that pie. If the films do well, most likely TV shows will follow (as for more games? Maybe, although that’s difficult to say right now). It helps that both films seem to be tied to those people who worked on the games, but films are a whole ‘nother ballgame with a less than stellar track record when it comes to video game adaptations. Still, I can’t help but hope – I have long wanted to see these iconic characters outside their gaming forms, reaching a broader audience. If this works out, perhaps more gaming companies (EA in particular – there isn’t a money-making scheme they WON’T try) will get back to creating mascot-based games, if the ultimate goal is to spawn a franchise across multiple media formats. Maybe, just maybe, those mascots will be pushed into next gen gaming mechanics, beyond idealized 3D platformers. Imagine playing a cute purple alien in a game with the sophistication of Deus Ex.

Disney’s take on a live-action Rescue Rangers somewhat fits along the same lines, but in many ways it’s wholly different. Disney is probably thinking more along the lines of Alvin and the Chipmunks and G-Force. This should give everyone pause. Rescue Rangers was quietly creative and clever, a fully realized miniature world that existed among the feet of humans. This live-action adaptations, which looks increasingly likely to avoid using anyone connected with the original show, may turn this group of flawed, complex rodents into comedic visual eye candy. (They also claim this will be an origin story – unless they basically do a CGI version of the “To The Rescue” five-parter, this probably will be terrible. They’ll also probably do that thing where the Rangers wear clothes but all the other talking animals don’t, which will be bullshit since the whole point is that the smaller animals DO where clothes. But I digress.)

The original Rangers were a tight-knit group of flawed critters – Dale was too scatterbrained, Chip was too stuck-up, Monty was conceited, Gadget was absent-minded, and Zipper was insecure. As silly as the show was, they were characters. They had desires and feelings and flaws, and the original writers put in the work to make the characters and world of the Rescue Rangers feel “real.” With the likelihood of the original creators not being involved, there’s a chance that the creatives chosen to take up this film will take the easy route – a simple story involving kids and some adult that needs to “believe” or some shit, with a cringe-worthy dance routine. (TO BE FAIR, the original show had cringe-worthy dance routines, too.) But there is potential with fresh crew, in particular if they’re fans of the old show. There’s a chance that they can be respectful of the original series while pushing it in an interesting direction. Gadget going overboard with internet-speak will be terrible; Gadget quickly getting the hang of the internet has potential.

The question on my mind is – how is Disney going to approach this film in relation to the original series? That is, will Disney, at any point, acknowledge its relationship with the original show? Will they air (or at least put on their Youtube page) the original show? Obviously there’s a huge nostalgia angle that Disney is exploiting here, but the question is how far will they go with it. Alvin and the Chipmunks didn’t exactly inspire legions of people to see the originals, but then again, the cartoons and songs are already readily accessible if you know where to look. Disney is notorious for keeping a certain sect of its past output under lock and key. So, I’m not too sure they’d jump aboard tying the film to its Disney Afternoon ancestor. If they did, they’d have to also deal with the question of it’s other DA shows – Ducktales, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, and so on. How far would that go? I mean, their later output – Goof Troop, Bonkers, Mighty Ducks, Quack Pack – isn’t so hot (I purposely skipped the shows based on Disney films for obvious reasons).

The fact that these films are coming out is kind of a big deal, though. There’s been growing appeal among CGI creations, both ironic and unironic, and while many people roll their eyes at yet another batch of talking pixels, the technology, and the realistic approach to that technology (not to mention that sweet, sweet green) has a lot of people excited. Some of the best CGI creations in the last few years – Smeagol in Lord of the Rings, the Navi in Avatar, that big ol’ ape in Rise of the Planet of the Apes – only has audiences and executives alike eager for more. Hell, ninety percent of the talk over Marvel’s new Guardian of the Galaxy film was centered around their talking raccoon. The people who scoff at “how silly” such a character might be seem to be more in the minority as filmmakers finally take them seriously and not comic relief iconography. How can these people be taking seriously when they ridicule a talking animal with a gun while rooting for a god from a magical planet wielding a massive hammer? This argument is pretty much invalid.

What’s next is still up in the air, mostly dependent on how well these films do. While there are some reservations about these announcements, there’s definitely potential, which is hugely dependent on who’s involved and their dedication to the material being adapted. I’m reserving judgment of the films themselves until the release date, but I’m more curious about what talking creature comes next, and whether it’ll be sincere or cloying.

I am an unabashed fan of Matt Bluestone. I truly, honestly love him, with his ginger hair and his bright, baby blue eyes, spouting Illuminati nonsense and running around looking for connections and secrets and red herrings. I love that when he does indeed find answers, it only makes him crazier and more unhinged. I wouldn’t ship him with Elisa though – Elisa would try and calm him down, and the last thing we need right now is a relaxed Matt. Screw Gargoyles; Matt Bluestone needs his own spin-off. His partner could be Xanatos’ dad! Matt could be flying an alien spaceship into the sun, playing space chicken with some Martians to get them to divulge their world domination plans, while Xanatos’ dad is sipping martinis in the back of the spacecraft, complaining about the “ruckus and whatnot”.

I’m getting ahead of myself. “The Price” and “Revelations” are two fairly run-of-the-mill episodes. Nothing too exciting or surprising, nor terrible or upsetting. They don’t quite push things along (“Revelations” does, kinda, but it’s hard to tell if it’s significant), but they don’t really hurt the show in anyway (“Revelations” does have a part in the middle that feels way too forced). The hiatus has put a bit of distance between me and some of the events of the episodes, but then again, after the whole “City of Stone” saga, coming down from that high feels like a let down. Still, we learn about some characters in new and interesting ways, which is always nice.

“The Price,” in particular, feels perfunctory. It doesn’t do much really but give a bit more insight into Xanatos and Hudson, although the biggest surprise involves Owen. Here, the gargoyles are attacked by Macbeth while on patrol, and we get a cool, if not particularly exciting fight scene. Macbeth is “killed” in the fight, but not before smashing a bag of pink powder over Hudson’s face. It seems innocent enough, but when the gargoyles awaken the next evening, they find that Hudson is still stuck in his stone slumber. Assuming it was the magic dust, Goliath and Lex head off to Macbeth’s mansion to find a cure while Brooklyn and Broadway stay behind to watch Hudson.

All of this is just a massive distraction, as the real Hudson is locked away in a laser cage, held captive by Xanatos and Owen. Once again, Xanatos has an ancient Macguffin, the Cauldron of Life, which grants mortality after boiling a piece of a gargoyle’s stone skin for twenty-four hours. You see, there was a bit of a misdirect – as the gargoyles were sleeping, Xanatos and his crew grabbed the real Hudson and replaced it with a fake stone model. The dust was just a red herring. I gotta be honest. This is a reach of a plan. For one thing, after the gargoyles awoke from their stone slumber and flew off, I’m sure there would be a lot of stone skin pieces lying around to choose from. Second, how could a sculptor know the exact pose Hudson would be in when changing to stone “weeks in advanced” to fool the other gargoyles? That’s a bit of a nit-pick, but that is also a fairly big flaw in the planning of this episode.

I won’t harp on it too much, though, as this gives Hudson and Xanatos the opportunity to shoot the shit. The Cauldron grants immortality, something that someone like Xanatos would want, of course. Hudson advises against it. After all, he’s seen so many things and lost so many clansmen, so he knows full well what immortality is – a curse. Xanatos doesn’t buy it. In a rare moment of vulnerability, he plays his card when he overreacts to Hudson’s claim that he fears death: by crying out he’s not scared of anything, Xanatos pretty much admits he’s scared of dying. At the same time, Xanatos accuses Hudson of being an old, useless waste of space, contributing nothing. We know that Hudson has his insecurities – we learned that back in “Long Way to Morning” – but he’s too prideful and loyal to give in to age, which is important. Xanatos completely underestimates Hudson in that regard, which is how the gargoyle escapes his fate.

I do like these kinds of conversations. You don’t really see it a lot in cartoons, adult or not. It comes off a bit clunky, but Ed Asner (Hudson) and Jonathan Frakes (Xanatos) sell it well. As I mentioned before, Gargoyles has always been about purpose, finding ways to move on and keep going, despite tragedy or riches. Xanatos’ has pretty much everything, yet his whole motivation is about wanting more. Hudson sees him as a rich fool who thrives on greed and power, which is true to an extent, but Xanatos’ real desire is to WANT that greed and power. Which is why he never really commits to going after the gargoyles, or simply taking out Elisa or Renard. The multiple threads in the air allows him to function off these characters for whatever end goal comes his way, and death would be the end of that high. So, yeah, he fears death, because it would completely take away his edge.

The weirdest and potentially most significant thing to take away from this episode is Owen. Much is made in the way of his service and dedication to Xanatos here, with Xanatos making some passive-aggressive digs at Owen’s loyalty, responsibility, and accountability. It’s sort of a strange development. Xanatos never really expressed any doubts about Owen before. In fact, the two seem to connect a bit during the “City of Stone” debacle. So to see Xanatos praise his fake Macbeth over Owen is rather surprising (and out-of-character if this doesn’t lead anywhere). In order to prove his worth (and he doesn’t really have to, which makes the moment even that much creepier), he dunks his hand into the Cauldron to test it, no questions asked, turning his arm into stone. You see, the Cauldron grants immortality by way of stone transformations, because sorcerers love misdirected wordplay in their magic spells.

Hudson makes it back to his clan after they thought he was dead, and they learn that Macbeth, who kept coming back and repeating the same lines over and over, was a series of robots. It’s a nice reunion to a rather straight-forward episode.

“Revelations” is just as mainstream, although since it stars MY MAIN MAN MATT, I have to give it extra points. Good ol’ Matt is still on his tear about the Illuminati, desperately wanting to break that entire group wide open. Here he gets close, but not after a whole lot of crazy and paranoia, which works so well for this kind of show. I wish Gargoyles had more unhinged, slightly-bonkers characters. Maybe if Malone escapes his hotel prison we’ll get a few episodes of that.

“Revelations” is aggressively the most comic-book-like of the series so far, beginning with a sequence of a captive Goliath crushing his way through a series of deadly funhouse traps inside a horrific hotel. Matt Bluestone and Mace Malone watch Goliath struggle from surveillance cameras, which then triggers Matt to recollect the events on how they even got in this situation. I’m almost convinced this WAS a comic book that they decided to make into an episode, with Matt’s running commentary equivalent to captions. While I’m normally not into narration and in media res formats, I think it works for Matt because he’s so nutso, but also because his craziness is combating a sense of guilt and betrayal. His recollection of events is his way of determining if he wants to save Goliath or let him be killed so he can delve deeper into the halls of the Illuminati.

Matt is being pulled at all sides. He pushes his former FBI partner to give him info on the whereabouts of Mace, while Elisa constant disappearing into the attics of the police station confuses him. Elisa starts to act flirty towards Matt to throw him off, but even though she’s faking it, flirty Elisa does not work for me. It doesn’t seem like something she’d do, falsely or not. Good thing it happens briefly, although the episode implies a romantic pairing between the two. I hope that doesn’t happen. I REALLY hope that doesn’t happen.

“Pulling the wool over your eyes” is the core of this episode, with Matt being the guy struggling to see. Even though everyone around him is trying to throw him off the trail, he bullies and forces his way to find answers. There’s a nice moment in the episode where he mentions to Elisa that his crazy pursuits give him purpose (there’s that theme again!) and makes him stand out. And even though it causes people to distrust him and ignore his claims, it keeps Matt driven, and that’s all that really matters.

Matt tracks down Mace Malone, who indeed offers Matt access to the Illuminati if he can bring in a gargoyle. The scene that follows, in which a psycho Matt speeds along a cliff to force Elisa to divulge information on the gargoyles, is great and quintessential Matt, but it’s also really, really forced. Elisa was driving. It was her car. Matt asks to drive and Elisa, rightly, tells him no. But then she pulls over and lets him drive anyway? I was really thrown off by this. I’m aware the Youtube episodes are edited, so did I miss something? Why would she tell him piss off, only to give in into his pointless request? Elisa seem wildly out of character here, and for a chunk of the episode as well.

It works though, and soon Elisa shows him the gargoyles. They quickly become friends, kinda, which allows Matt to lure Goliath to Mace and the hotel-of-death, with a million rooms of deathtraps and other psychological torture devices. I mean, this is as comic book as you can get – the only good thing that came out of DC’s New 52 was The Court of Owls, who basically did the same thing to Batman. We return to the present as we watch Goliath struggle through the rooms, up until he reveals a hotel key he snatched off Matt. The episode kinda glosses over this – apparently if you have a hotel key you can shut off all the traps – by specifically not showing Goliath actually use the key and work his way safely through the hotel. It’s silly, in that comic book kind of way, but I buy it because if you’re going to do silly, you got to do it by way of Matt Motherfucking Bluestone.

In the end Matt Motherfucking Bluestone saves Goliath by attacking Mace before the latter pumps the beast full of lead. He rather keep his new beastly ally instead of expose the Illuminati, at least for now. Mace Malone now is slowly losing his mind in the hotel, trapped inside its walls without his key. Matt and Elisa bond some more over the gargoyles, and their partnership is restored – and hopefully kept that way. Not all is lost on the crazy front though, as Matt’s former FBI partner outs himself as an Illuminati member assigned to throw Matt off the secret society’s scent. Both he and Elisa tried to push Matt in the wrong direction, but you can’t fool crazy for long, especially “yelling nonsense at the sky after damn near committing a murder-suicide” crazy. I love you, Matt. May the Illuminati completely and utterly regret bringing your brand of insanity into its fold.

Oh, and apparently Xanatos is a low-level member of the Illuminati. Nice one, Gargoyles crew.